border collies

[bob-b]

I just got a couple of puppies ... of course I have high hopes (why wouldn't I) I saw it on TV......is there any beginnings that I ought to do? I'd love to turn them into good cattle dogs ...parents were great (apparently)thanks in advance.

[cowman]

The best advice I can give you Bob is to not let them start to "work" until they are 6 months old. They will start to try at about 3 months! If they get kicked or an old cow buffaloes them they could be timid forever! The other thing I could tell you is don't let the kids near them, if you have kids! These are dogs bred to work and I don't know what it is but they become practically useless if they are around kids. Another thing is these collies are extremely smart and you must be right up on the discipline! A dog views you as another dog...you can be "Leader Of The Pack!" or just another mutt! If you are training them you should be the only one feeding them!!! A truly sensitive dog(usually the best ones) won't even eat unless YOU feed her.(I'm prejudiced...I would not own a male dog! I have found that female dogs,like women, have a lot more brains than the males!!!) That is the whole trick to raising a good dog!

[dfarms11]

Hi there, I have just taken on your venture 1 year ago. I started by knowing absolutley nothing also. Anyway I went to a training clinic held by Elvin Kopp at the Lakedell Arena. It cost $200 but he teaches you how to train your dogs from scratch. If you want to learn to do it right, go to a clinic. Elvin is really good. He has won a lot of the top prizes in show. Him and Dale Montgomery from Sask. I would almost say are the best guys in Canada.

Anyway, a few things I learned are

-keep your dog kenneled up, they find it to be their home, they will want to be there all the time if they arn't working.
-go to a clinic.
-go to a clinic.
-start at around 10-12 months.
-you must!!!!! be able to control and discipline your dog. Dont be a softy or else they will do what you don't want them to do.
-And finally if I didn't mention it before... go to a training clinic
I can't emphasize that enough, because you will want to find out how to do it right.

Dwayne

[Muttley]

I bought a dog from Dale Montgomery a few years ago. Best dog I ever owned. I have been lost since she died a year ago.
I have a nephew who was working for a ranch in southern Alberta a few years back. When it was time for the bonus everybody got money and he got a dog. They told him it was excellant with cattle. Well he brought it home and tryed to sell it, we did everything to get that dog to work. When we contacted the former owner they informed us they had bought the dog and that it was supposed to be trained.
Well dear uncle got the job of getting rid of the dog as it was living in town and the town cat population was going down quickly.
I brought it to the farm and instead of a bullet I fell in love with dog. I had that dog for a couple of years and it never did anything but chase cats and eat. One day the wife and I drove in the yard and the cows were out, I honked the horn and the dog came alive, put the cows right back in. We came to realize it had been trained with a whistle and horn. Once we learned a few things that dog worked pretty good.

My advise is if you don't know how to train, hire it done right no matter what the cost if the dog is good it will be worth while.